Impairment
by kunoichiinthewonderland
Summary: After the death of their teachers, they continued their lives in their own way. To the moment when they were reminded of what had left behind and what was their duty. Now they need to learn how to cooperate in order to give a normal live to the kid who had never had a taste of it. Would they succeed?
1. Prologue

A/N: My first story on Naruto. Have never done it before, so sorry if it's not for your liking.

I am aware that stories containing OC are not always received nicely by the readers, but I couldn't help myself. It's just that I don't really find any female character in Naruto that would fit nicely with Kakashi (sorry to any fans of KakaSaku, TsunaKaka and KakaRin). That's why I decided to put OC in this story. And I'm sorry if she is not to your liking.

Anyway, I hope that you will like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, aside of Team Kushina.

* * *

She really didn't want to do this.

Being a jounin teacher was fun and all, as she heard, but it wasn't her cup of tea. No, Uzumaki Kushina definitely preferred to be send on a high-ranked missions and risk being hurt, dismembered, impaled, dead and even castrated (theoretically not possible in her case, but well… nothing is impossible to a willing mind, right?). Everything but babysitting three kids with different levels of talent and skills. She had problem with taking care of herself sometimes, who even would think that she was able to take care of three young innocent souls? Definitely bad idea.

For a quite long moment she had been thinking about dropping the three brats that were assigned to her on her sunshine-blond boyfriend. He had already three of his own, so another three wouldn't hurt him, right? He was a prodigy after all, so he would handle them. But the Sandaime Hokage seemed to know her better than she thought since he had prohibited her to ditch the three young genins on anyone, especially not on Namikaze Minato (maybe because the blond would not be able to refuse any of her pleas). Even before she had said anything, dammit! That wasn't fair.

But still, she was there, standing in front of three young masochistic souls given into her own sadistic hands. What was she supposed to do? She had no idea how to start the first lesson.

Now, every other person in the world, after being assigned a new team of genins, would prepare something before-hand. But not Kushina. She preferred to go all night with her ladies friends and come back to home at dawn, go back to sleep and almost be late on the meeting if not for her botfriend who had dragged her hang over body on the training ground. But she wasn't late. She was just in time. She was just that awesome.

They were looking at her. For, like, five minutes now. And she was looking back at them. Also for five minutes now.

"So… yeah… I'm Uzumaki Kushina and I will be your jounin teacher starting now." She said, wondering if it wasn't too late to assign to ANBU. They were not being assigned any teams of children, right?

Don't blame her, the kids were scary in their own way.

"Let's start with introducing ourselves, 'ttebane!" she decided.

Knowing their names would be good. She still need to find the files given to her by the Hokage. They were in her apartment… somewhere.

"Akiyama Natsuki."

Looks like someone had a fetish on seasons. Kushina examined the girl with brown hair and green eyes in front of her while the girl looked at her with interest. When she didn't see anything interesting in the young kunoichi, she moved her eyes onto a first boy.

"Yukimura Isamu."

Well, if the dark haired kid stand up to his name Kushina could see a great bond forming between them. And no, she wasn't playing favorites. But seeing the confidence in his brown eyes, the redhead decided that she may found the star of the team.

"Yamauchi Saburo."

The boy with shy blue eyes looked at her for a short moment before averting his gaze. Kushina decided that they would first work on his self-esteem.

"Great. Now that we know each other…" more or less, she thought "… we can see what you can do, 'ttebane! Any questions?"

She looked again at the girl when she raised her hand.

"What does "'ttebane" means?"

* * *

After the first month of being a jounin teacher Kushina learned few things:

1. Don't let Isamu anywhere near sweet things- When Kushina stopped only for a short moment to ask something Uchiha Mikoto who was just passing by, the boy had gone mysteriously missing. It had taken her ten minutes to drag him out of the near shop. And by dragging him out she actually meant throwing him over her shoulder and carrying him away from the shop.

2. Be careful what you are saying. Because when you say to 'go all out', the kids can actually do it and drain themselves out of chakra to the point where they faint. And send themselves to the hospital on the first day. She was still getting a stingy eye from the medic nins.

3. Her team was definitely suicidal. They were not innocent children. They were devils sent to make her live a hell by blaming their deaths on her: Saburo nearly impaled himself with his own kunai, Isamu decided that telling her a new joke about an Uchiha while one of them were passing by was a good idea and Natsuki blindly went in between two fighting shinobis, who just had to happen to be Minato and Jiraya (thanks Kami for quick reflexes of the two) on the training ground.

After another meeting with the three of them and the first D mission after they got used to each other… to some point…. Kushina came back home completely exhausted and drained psychically. Their mission was simple: help the local inn keeper in running the inn for a week during which the owner's daughters are on vacation. Everything was going nicely. At the beginning. Everything went down from there. In the end they had to pay back for destroyed property and bills from mental center.

To say it mildly, Hokage wasn't happy with them.

She had to think about something to keep them out of trouble for the time being, until the anger of the Old Man die a little bit. But how to do that?

"'Shina-sensei!" the voice of one of the three biggest problems in her life was heard and she turned around to face the kids. "When are we going on another mission?"

Kushina smiled widely at kids while thinking very hard of what to say to them. 'Sorry kids, you pissed the Old Man so we are staying down for a while?' It would not go well.

Think, Kushina, think…

"Sensei, are you ok?" Natsuki asked her suddenly, backing just a little with worried look. Seriously, the concentrated look on the face of her teacher with the addition of creepy smile was just… threatening.

Kushina was about to admit her defeat when in the corner of her eye she, caught a sight of Minato and his team. She smiled even wider in victory while Natsuki took one step back again. This time her teammates did the same, just in case.

"Well, we have a mission now, 'ttebane!" she announced loudly, catching the attention of few people around.

While Isamu looked at her eagerly, Saburo and Natsuki wandered what they had ever done to get a teacher like that. Because whatever Kushina-sensei had in her head was seriously going to have them killed. The gleam in her eyes told them so.

"W-What is this mission, sensei?" Saburo dared to asked and Kushina remembered that they were going to work on his self-esteem.

"See they white haired little guy over there with Minato?" she asked pointing her finger.

Of course they knew Minato, after all he was the one who had dragged back their sensei on the meetings when she was fed up with them.

"You mean Hatake Kakashi?" Isamu asked, putting his hands to his pockets and turning his head back to the redhead.

Kushina nodded her head, getting more and more pleased with herself.

"Your mission, my three little students, is to make him take off his mask, 'ttebane!" she announced once again and her students again decided that the happy and overly pleased with herself tone of voice was terrifying.

"What for?"

Kushina blinked at Natsuki.

"What do you mean 'what for'?" she answered with a question.

"I mean, mission usually had some reasons why we are accomplishing them, right, Kushina-sensei?" Natsuki blinked her eyes at her innocently, but the redhead could swear that she could see the evil glint somewhere in the back of the green pools. "What are we going to accomplish by making Hatake taking his mask off?"

"_Getting off Hokage's way for some time is good enough reason." _She thought.

"It's a way for me to see how stealth, sneaky and intelligent are you, guys." She said aloud.

Kakashi could be a chibi in her opinion, but the kid was freaking prodigy after all and even she had to acknowledge his abilities. Her three little genins stood no chance against soon-to-be jonin.

Yeah, she was a terrible teacher.

"So, all we have to do make him take it off?" Saburo asked.

She nodded her head.

"That's all?" Isamu looked at her questioningly,

She nodded again.

"Is it really a mission?" Natsuki looked at her still suspicious.

She nodded again.

The three of them looked again in the direction of the white haired boy.

Kushina sighed with relief when they all nodded their head. She had few weeks of quiet and peace. There was no way they would be able to do it. After all, she had been trying to take Kakashi's mask off for three years already and hadn't succeeded.

* * *

Kakashi suddenly felt a chill running down his neck and she knew that something bad was going to happen to him,

"Something wrong, Kakashi?" Minato asked, noticing suddenly alarmed look on the boy's face.

"No, sensei, everything is fine." He answered while looking around.

Nothing seemed out of place. More importantly, he hadn't noticed green spandex anywhere. But then his eyes caught the sight of red hair whose owner was suspiciously pointing her finger at him with three kids nodding their heads with different level of eagerness.

"Minato-sensei?"

"What is it, Kakashi?" the blond asked, furrowing his brows at the little boy. Something seemed really wrong with his student.

"I think Kushina-sensei is planning to kill me again." He answered not taking his eyes from the said kunoichi.

"Kakashi, Kushina had never tried to kill you." Minato answered calmly Well, maybe she almost choked the kid with his own mask while trying to take it off, but… well, he had no excuse for her.

But he turned his eyes in the direction of where Kakashi was looking and a small sweatdrop formed on his forehead. Kakashi was right, the look on her face was telling troubles. And he knew he was going to get caught in between. Especially when her three students were staring at Kakashi with some strange calculating look.

"What were you saying, sensei?" Kakashi with raised brow.

* * *

Kakashi's life had turned into a pit of mental tortures. His next week looked as follows:

_**Day #1 **_

Of course Kakashi knew that someone was following him just an hour after Kushina-sensei and her team disappeared from his sight.

The three morons didn't even try to hide their chakra signatures.

Well, at first he had no idea who was following him, but a window was a great shinobi tool too.

So when the back haired guy tried to jump on him from behind and made an attempt to grab his face, he simply shoved the idiot to the ground and left him to be picked up by the rest of the trio.

_**Day #2 **_

Kakashi felt his eyebrow ticking nervously when he passed a 'newly opened' stand offering different styles of face mask.

It goes without saying that the three of Kushina-sensei's idiots could go better with simple henge that some crazy attires, most probably provided to them by the redhead herself.

_**Day #3**_

He knew even before he had entered his apartment that the idiots were already there.

So he was not even surprised by the three plants standing in his living room, one with foot sticking out from the pot and the other with blue eyes blinking shyly on him from a leaf.

Well, at least they used henge this time.

And Kakashi was reminded why he preferred plants from people when he was throwing the trio out of his apartment: they were silent.

_**Day #4 **_

Kakashi was thinking about seriously killing them when he came back from a mission and heard some strange noises coming from his closet. He made his way there, but was stopped by the slight chakra change of one of them.

"Isamu, did you just touch my butt?"

There was a moment of silence followed by nervous laugh.

"W-Wait, Natsu-san, I'm here t-too!"

He left his apartment, deciding that at least two of them were getting their punishment.

_**Day #5 and #6 **_

He thought that after he had put a better barrier around his bathroom after Gai invited himself there, no one would be able to enter there.

But he was wrong.

He had two uninvited guests two days straight.

_**Day #7 **_

Kakashi knew that he was going to have free day when he overheard their conversation.

"No."

"But Natsu, we had already done it!"

"So?"

"Now is your turn."

"I'm not going to sneak into his bathtub, Isamu, forget it."

"Why not?"

"Maybe because I'm a girl, idiot?"

"Exactly! There is a chance that he won't throw you out!"

Kakashi gracefully stepped out of the way when a lifeless body flew by him.

_**Day #8**_

Kakashi had never felt so mentally scarred for life.

Because being pushed by the cross-dressed student of your sensei's girlfriends, a boy around his age in definitely not fitting red dress and heels and make-up, who was trying to pull down your mask to kiss you while acting as some drama queen was an event that would imprint in his memory forever.

It was his breaking point. He needed to know why they were pushing his limits and making idiots out of themselves.

Maybe he was influenced by their idiocy or his lack of sleep or something, but suddenly the idea of kidnapping one of them was quite an attractive idea.

So, he had to make a plan.

First was to decide who would be the first to break.

Isamu, the guy who seemed to be the chairman of the idiocy, seemed to be at the same level of stubbornness and stupidness as Obito, so trying to interrogate him was fruitless. He didn't feel like dealing with second Uchiha now.

Saburo was ready to faint at the spot when the white haired boy just passed him on the street or something. Kakashi was actually scared that the guy would die from shock or a heart attack.

So it left him with only one choice- Natsuki.

Well, it wasn't really a kidnapping per say. He just dragged her out of her apartment by her collar, excusing her mother who looked just slightly amused by the situation and completely trying to ignore the black cat who was doing everything to trip him.

She was smart enough to not fighting back.

"If I say it was for greater good will it help me?" she asked and he glared at her.

In her books this excuse worked wonders usually.

"Ok, I get it." She added when he didn't answer. "But you can let me go, I promise I won't run."

"You think you would have a chance to run?" he asked coldly but let go of her collar nevertheless.

"Probably not."

"Surely not." He corrected her and looked at her with crossed arms. "Now talk."

* * *

When for the first time in months when Minato had the three of them under his care it was Kakashi who was late, not Obito, he became quite worried.

And when Kushina suddenly appeared sheepish on the training ground with two of her students, one looking uneasy and the other ready to drop dead at any moment, he became _very _worried.

"What happened?" he asked while Rin looked over the sickly looking boy.

"You see… I can't find Natsu anywhere and she had been last seen by her mother with Kakashi who literally dragged her out of her apartment, 'ttebane." She explained, and Minato noticed with a little surprise that there was worry in her eyes.

He furrowed his brow. It was definitely out of character for Kakashi to do something like that… unless he was pushed to his limits.

"Kushina…" he moaned. "What did you do?"

"Why are you assuming that I have done anything, 'ttebane?!" she shouted at him offended.

Five pointed looks caused her to calm down.

Taking a deep breath she told him about her team's 'mission'.

"… you are sadistic." Minato commented, slapping his forehead.

"Kushina- sensei, that's awesome! Why didn't you tell me, I would help!" Obito shouted, looking at the redhead with stars in his eyes.

Everything that pissed Kakashi off was like an aphrodisiac to him.

"No, you wouldn't. That's mean, Obito!" Rin lectured him, putting her hands on her hips.

"Ok, now we need to find Kakashi and Natsu."

Minato had no idea where it came from, but had sudden image of Kakashi in little devil's dress with pitchfork which he used to pock with evil grin the tied up and crying Natsuki.

Too much time with Kushina, definitely.

"I'm here."

Kushina turned around as quickly as possible and was at Natsu's side in the blink of eye, faster than the Yellow Flash would ever be. Well, not really.

"Are you okay?! He didn't hurt you, did he, 'ttebane?!" she started to look her over, ignoring the scared look on her female student's face on her actions and glaring at the white haired boy who entered after her.

"Y-yeah, I'm f-fine, sensei." She answered and backed a little. "Anyway, I completed your mission." She added, handing over the dark mask in her hand to the older female.

There was a long silence in the room. They all looked first at Kakashi who nodded his head with another mask on already.

"How?!"

"Wait, have you seen his face?!"

"N-Natsu-san, I thought he was going to kill you! What d-did he do to you?!"

"What the hell were you thinking, 'ttebane?!"

Natsuki blinked, just slightly terrified by Kushina's, Obito's, Saburo's and Isamu's faces shouting questions at her.

She smiled however, raising her finger.

"It's…"

They went quiet and waited.

"… a secret."

Minato only smiled at the look on his girlfriend's face.

"Oi… just what kind of monster do you think I am?" Kakashi asked with ticking eyebrow.

Now he needed to stop his student from having revenge.

* * *

Two silhouettes were visible standing in front of the memorial stones in the dark night, tracing with their eyes names of their once important people.

_Uzumaki Kushina_

_Namikaze Minato_

_Uchiha Obito_

_Nohara Rin_

_Yukimura Isamu_

After some time, they went in two separate directions. No goodbyes were needed, they were not so close to each other anyway to play in some emotional way of parting and it was probably the last time they had seen each other anyway.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 **

The little kid was running as fast as his short legs allowed him to. It wasn't a simple task in his current state. He really tried not to cry, he knew that it would only slow him down, but at the same time he couldn't stop the sobs that were shaking his small body, making it harder to breath.

He just wanted to run away, as far as possible, where drunk and mean people would not try to hurt him and say these bad words to him.

He didn't do anything so why they were trying to do bad things to him? They always did, as long as his short memory would reach there weren't many people who would offer him some nice words. And today he just went out of the orphanage to take a walk because it was warm and nice outside, even if it was dark already. He didn't like sitting in the small, stuffed and stingy room all day as he was told to. He could hear the voices and laughs of other children outside the room he was locked in and he wanted to join them. But every time he could exit the room the children avoided him, just like they were told to do whenever he was close.

The panic gripped his throat when he heard the shouting of the villagers coming closer and closer. They were a lot larger than him so it wasn't really a surprise that they were closing fast on him.

But he didn't want them to catch him! He tried to run faster, ignoring the pain he had started to feel in his lungs. The tears in his eyes were obscuring his vision and he tried to wipe them away with his sleeve while still running, what was quite a task.

But they were still flowing and he couldn't see.

And then he bumped into something hard and fell on the ground, grimacing slightly at the pain in his butt at the contact with the hard stone. Hearing the shouting from behind him coming closer and closer he lost his will to run. They would catch him anyway. Trying to protect himself from the blows that would land on him soon enough, he curled into the ball hugging his knees to his chest and closing his eyes, not even trying to stop his sobs any longer.

"Are you all right?" he heard the rustling of clothes when the person that he had bumped into lowered itself to check on him. There was a gasp. "You are..."

He screamed in terror when he felt someone touching his arm that was hugging his head closer to his knees. The touching stopped quickly but the person didn't move away from him.

"Calm down. I won't hurt you." The voice spoke again calmly and gently. To his surprise the harm didn't come.

But he didn't have time to think about it since the villagers had catch up with him.

"Oi, there he is!"

"We got the demon kid!"

"Let's have some fun!"

"He didn't learn last time!"

The kid closed his eyes curling into himself more while awaiting the pain that was going to come. Maybe they would get bored soon and leave him alone without doing too much damage? He hoped so. But in the same time he knew that it would be just wishing on his side.

"Oi lady, come, join the fun."

"I will pass, thank you."

Naruto cracked one of his eyes open and looked up a little. All he could see was a jounin jacket. He closed his eyes again when he heard one of the villagers coming even closer from behind him.

The jounin on whose leg the child had bumped straightened and looked on the drunk men in front of her with calculating look. It was clearly visible that they were barely standing on their feet thanks to the consumed alcohol, so the fact that they were able to run after the kid was quite amusing.

"Why? It's always a lot of…" before the man could finish the sentence, he was met with the punch on his face.

"What the hell?!"

"Who the fuck are you?!"

The jounin the villagers encountered looked at them with titled head before answering with a smile.

"It's a secret."

After few moments they were passed out on the ground. Good thing that they wasted, it went fast and they probably wouldn't remember who attacked them or why someone attacked them. It would spare her a lot of trouble she would get into for attacking civilians.

She looked down on the blond child quivering on the ground before bending down again to his level.

She was never good with kids.

"Oi, you are Naruto, right?" she asked and grimaced when the boy winced and moved away a little.

"I'm Natsuki, but you can call me Natsu." She continued, hoping that the kid would calm enough to let her take him home. She couldn't just leave him there, in the middle of the road. "What are you doing out here alone?"

Aside from being chased by drunk men.

She was met with silence again.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know?" she asked rhetorically before starting to look for something in her pocket. "Look, I will give you a candy, you like sweets? I love them and it's my last one, so you better enjoy it or I won't give you any candies ever again, deal?" she asked finally finding a treat in her pocket and handing it to him.

One blue eye looked at her suspiciously.

"You don't want it?" she asked, sitting in front of him on the ground. "Then I'm going to eat it. Too bad for you, it's really good." She was silent for a moment. "So maybe you will change your mind?"

There was a silence for around two more minutes before a hesitant hand stretched out to take the offered candy. Naruto snatched it from her hand quickly pulling it back to himself and taking off the wrap. He was watching her all the time with the corner of his eyes, definitely not trusting her. It was new to him, to have a stranger being nice to him. Well, they sometimes were nice, but it was quickly over when they recognized the markings on his cheeks. But the lady knew his name and was still nice. That was something knew and he didn't know what to think about it. But his worries died slowly in accordance to the sweetness filling his mouth.

On her part Natsu was watching the kid with interest. He was looking almost exactly like Minato-sensei, but she still could see the resemblance in his face to Kushina-sensei. He had to be a great kid, no matter whose character he got in his genes. That's why it was even more painful to see him so scared, so terrified. He looked like some little animal bitten up and ditched far away from home. She could see few bruises on his thin arms. The guilt hit her when she thought about the three years the boy had to live with the hate and anger directed at him, not knowing what he had done. She had nothing to explain why she had not taken any interest in the well-being of her sensei's children. She was too preoccupied with mission, her personal life and other things that she had never thought that Naruto could be so neglected.

"Do you like the candy, Naruto?" she asked, watching as the kid's face brightened a little while he was sucking the candy.

"Yeah, it's great, 'ttebayo!" he exclaimed suddenly with big smile on his face.

Natsu looked at him for a moment with widened eyes after hearing the catchphrase she was so familiar with. She couldn't help but laugh while shaking her head.

Naruto was startled by the sudden sound.

"W-What's wrong, 'ttebayo?" he asked fearfully but Natsu only shook her head.

"Nothing, Naruto, really nothing." She said and straightened. "So, what are you doing here all alone?" she asked, hoping that the boy wouldn't lock himself again.

Still. He was too trusting if a piece of candy was enough. However, he was just a kid.

"I didn't do anything, 'ttebayo!" he shouted suddenly and took a step back. Natsu jumped, startled with his reaction.

"Woah, I know, Naruto, I know. I just asked why you are alone outside at night."

The boy looked at the side, slightly ashamed by his exclamation.

"I wanted to walk." He answered.

"Why didn't you go during a day?" Natsu asked, furrowing her brows.

Most kids didn't like going outside at night, or at least the kids she knew.

Naruto mumbled something under his breath.

"Pardon?"

"I said that they didn't allow me to go out." He said a little louder.

Seeing his crestfallen expression and sad blue eyes, Natsuki couldn't stop herself.

* * *

When Kakashi was suddenly summoned to the Hokage's Office the next morning, he had no idea what could had happened. Especially when he was said to arrive as a jounin, not an ANBU captain.

He had been there just few hours before, giving report from his last mission.

"Hokage-sama." He greeted the older man sitting behind the desk. "Is there any problem?"

"Kakashi." The Hokage nodded his head at the jounin who entered his office. "You are, I assume, well informed about the case of Uzumaki Naruto?"

The white haired man nodded his head. He may not visit the child of his late sensei, but that didn't mean that he hadn't got interested in what is going on with the kid. According to the news in his acts, Naruto was stationed in the orphanage, being returned by one of his many adopted families (for misbehaving if Kakashi remembered correctly). How much truth was there, he didn't know, but suspected that it wasn't the real reason. Between being an ANBU captain and individual missions, he was rarely in Konoha for long enough to actually go and check on the well-being of Naruto.

"The matron of the orphanage reported his missing today." The Hokage continued, watching the white haired jounin over his pipe. "According to the witnesses he was seen alone in the night, running away from drunken villagers. However, that was last he was seen."

"And the witnesses didn't think of trying to help him, I presume?" Kakashi asked with sarcasm clearly heard in his voice.

"They were civilians." Hokage answered, the displease clearly heard in his voice.

"And what about the drunks?"

He hoped that they hadn't succeeded in catching the kid. If they did, he would now be up to search for the little body instead of the little boy.

"The ANBU patrol found them in the early morning passed out on the street. Judging by their looks and bruises, they were in a fight with someone. They are yet to wake up and sober enough to answer our questions." The older man took out the pipe from his mouth and started turning it in his hand. "I don't need to point out that finding Naruto alive is significant. The fact that we don't have a Nine-Tail Fox rampaging around the village gives me the hope that nothing bad happened to the boy."

That was a fact that many people, mostly civilians, didn't acknowledge. The seal on his stomach, no matter how complicated and precisely applied, worked only when they boy was alive. Not once in their blind hate against the boy they had hurt him, not aware that they could bring the doom on their village by themselves.

Kakashi unconsciously looked through the window as if to make sure that there really wasn't a giant demon making havoc around the village.

There wasn't.

"What about the ANBU that was assigned to watch the boy?"

Sarutobi's lips formed a thin line and he put a pipe again between his lips.

"He is questioned now."

The further talk was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door of the Hokage's office.

"Enter."

"Hokage-sama, the drunks has awaken and given their statements." Said the chunnin that entered the office with a respectful bow in Kakashi's direction.

"Report." The older man ordered shortly.

"During their chase they encountered a kunoichi. They don't remember much what happened before she knocked them out. She didn't gave her name telling that it was a secret, from what they say."

Kakashi raised his brow when something in his memory stirred.

"Hokage-sama, I think I know where Naruto may be." He said suddenly.

* * *

When Natsu woke up that morning, she was for a moment confused when she felt something warm at her side. At the beginning she was thinking that a stray cat she was taking care from time to time broke to her apartment again, but two things changed her mind:

1. The cat was not that big

2. The cat couldn't mumble in its sleep.

One look at the occupant in her bed reminded her of the fact that she had, on a total whim, decided to kidnap the son of her late sensei for a little interrogation (and no, she was not borrowing the idea from Kakashi and her 'traumatic' experience in the past). And when she had heard about the way he was treated in the orphanage he was staying and in the families he was put into she just couldn't let him go back there. At least for one night he could get a decent sleep in normal bed.

Remembering that she had a visit with a Hokage today to report on her last mission, she slowly stood up from the bed trying not to wake the sleeping kid. She didn't need to worry about it, as it seemed, since the blonde only mumbled something again and turned around, bringing the covers closer to himself. She tiptoed to her kitchen to get something to drink.

She had not been expecting the sudden attack.

When a hand enclosed on her throat and she was slammed against the wall her first thought was how the hell she hadn't felt additional chakra signature in her apartment.

The second thought was to gather her wits and fight for her life, for goodness sake!

So she encountered the intruder with the punch to his head from the side, but it was blocked. It gave her time however to grab the hand that was cutting her air supply and securing it between her side and arm, she twisted her body around so her opponent could take her place in being back to the wall.

However, the sleepiness somehow get to her and she tripped over the misplaced children shoe that Naruto had thrown off yesterday.

Some kunoichi she was.

In a blink of eye she found herself pressed to the chest of her attacker with her arm twisted behind and a kunai pressed to her throat.

Was she going to die because of her clumsiness?

"Where is Uzumaki Naruto?" a voice asked dangerously to her ear.

She furrowed her brows.

"Depends on who is asking and what business he has with him." She answered, ignoring the pulling on her arm.

"I'm the one asking questions."

Before she would answer and most probably dig her own grave, the little blond kid arrived on the scene, allured by the noise.

"What are you doing to nee-san, ''ttebayo?!" Naruto shouted after overcoming his shock when he saw that the nice lady that had saved him yesterday was being handled by the stranger.

The element of surprise gave Natsu the possibility to free herself from the hold the attacker had on her. With a quick hit of the elbow with a great amount of chakra in it, a move she learned from her sensei, she sent the man back and grabbing the knife from the kitchen table, she pinned him to the wall.

And was met with the kunai to the side.

"Hatake?" she blinked surprised recognizing the face of her attacker.

"For a jounin you are having quite a lot openings, Akiyama." He answered.

Neither of them relaxed or dropped their stances.

Natsu blushed at the comment. She just was not a morning person!

Not that it was an excuse, but well…

"Naruto, can you go to the room for a moment?" she asked, not taking her eyes from the other ninja.

The blond scattered away after a moment of hesitation. It was visible that he didn't wasn't to leave her alone, but a fight between two ninjas was not something he was able to survive at the moment.

"Can we drop the weapons and talk like civilized people?" she asked seriously.

When he nodded, she took the knife from his neck and put it back on the table before moving to a sink and pouring herself a glass of water.

"You are in trouble, Akiyama." Kakashi announced, leaning against the wall and looking on the woman in front of him closely.

"I'm aware of that." She answered, after drinking her water and putting the glass in the sink. "But I just couldn't left him there to be a punch bag for a drunk villagers."

"You could inform any ANBU officer that was stationed nearby."

She raised her brow.

"Yeah, because the one who was assigned to watch over him had done such a great job."

She was aware that there was always someone assigned to watch the kid, but seemingly they were ditching their work.

"He told me about what they were doing to him, you know?" she continued, sitting down at a kitchen table and resting her elbows on it. "Not only he was neglected but also abused. The matron of the orphanage locked him in a room when a new couples were coming to adopt some kid. He wasn't fed regularly and when he was, it was just some leftovers. I'm not going to even start on the biting he has been receiving every time when some kid did something and the fault was pushed on him. Don't mentioning the villagers." She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "You know that one of them tried to rape him?"

Kakashi almost choked on his own saliva.

"What did you say?"

Natsu nodded her head before noticing blond spikes sticking from behind the doorframe to her room. The kid sucked at eavesdropping. She signalled Kakashi to not start the subject.

"You have to report to the Hokage as soon as possible. Take the kid with you." He only said before disappearing.

"Naruto, you can come out." She said, thinking deeply.

Her eyes turned on the kid when he exited with a sheepish grin on his face, rubbing the back of his neck. He reminded her of her sensei at the moment, minus the hair and eyes.

"Nee-chan, are you in trouble?" he asked, looking at her fearfully.

She smiled at him before standing up. She moved to her room, ruffling his head on the way, ignoring the indignant "oi!".

"Nah, we just have to meet the Hokage." She answered, knowing very well that she would be chewed on.

* * *

Sandaime Hokage looked at the young woman in front of him with a calculative look on his face, at the same time trying to suppress the smile on the sight of the little blond head that was picking from behind her leg and blue eyes that were glaring at the man. It looked like the child was well aware of the fact, that the woman was in trouble and didn't like the berating that Natsu had received just few minutes ago. Usually Naruto was very happy to see him.

"Now, about your punishment…" he started however the movement stopped him.

Naruto jumped from behind the leg he was using as a shield. Natsu did try to stop him by making a move to grab him around the waist, but the kid was so freaking wiggling that he slipped from her hold.

"You can't punish nee-chan, Old Man!" he shouted when he took his position on the Hokage's desk with his finger pointed accusingly at the man. "She had done nothing wrong, 'ttebayo!"

Hokage raised his eyebrow at the boy while Natsu facepalmed herself. It shouldn't be so surprising, after all Naruto was Kushina's son. It was to be expected that he would be as idiotic as she was at times.

"I can't? So what should I do, Naruto?" the older man asked, puffing the smoke out of his pipe.

"I-I… don't know, 'ttebayo! But not punishment." The boy stated. "She was the first person nice to me, Old Man! And she even gave me ramen before we went to sleep! It was delicious!"

Sarutobi was quite sure that ramen for dinner was not a good food for a kid, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the most proper dinners the kid got in his life. He actually felt quite guilty for not intervening more into the child's life in the orphanage and foster families. Maybe he was really getting too old for the job. After all, there was a reason why he retired and gave his office to Minato few years ago.

The Sandaime Hokage turned his eyes for a moment when he heard the jounin mumble something alike "That's the only thing I had edible". He looked back to the blond kid who was still standing on his desk, completely ignoring the fact that he was dirtying the letter from the Feudal Lord (not that Sarutobi wanted to read it anyway, it was usually just some rubbish that he politely but respectfully completely ignored).

And that was when somehow genius idea entered his old mind. Maybe he was going senile, but it might work. In some way.

* * *

Natsu walked behind the blond who skipping happily through the streets of Konoha, humming something to himself. Apparently, the idea of the possibility of leaving the orphanage to live with someone who didn't treat him like a monster was amazing ans was making him overjoyed.

What couldn't be said about the girl walking behind him with thoughtful expression on her face.

Not that he didn't want to help the child of her late sensei. After seeing what they had been going through in his life, she knew that she wouldn't leave the matter alone. But she had been planning on doing so more from the shadows. But when the Hokage presented his proposal to her and the blue eyes looked at her so hopefully with a hint of silent begging, she couldn't say "no". It would be too cruel for the boy. And she didn't want to even think about making Kushina-sensei disappointed.

The redhead woman had been somehow cruel and ignorant at times, but she still was someone who Natsu turned to in the moment of need. Not ignoring the fact that the woman changed completely when she had found out that she was bearing a child. Natsu smiled for a moment remembering when the change in her teacher had scared her.

_She just came back from a few months long journey with her brother who had been hell bent on training her in their family jutsu. She was still somehow surprised and proud with herself that she had managed to survive the crazy ideas of her brother when it concerned his methods of training. Because throwing everything he was able to gain at her in the middle of the night was a sign that he was going crazy. Not to mention that he was a jounin while she was just a chunnin. _

_But that explained the number of bandages loosely wrapped around her body. The sadist didn't want to help her with them and she was not a specialist when it came to that. _

_"Natsu? What happened to you, 'ttebane?!" hearing the well-known voice behind her, she turned around to meet her sensei, who was standing next to the Ichiraku ramen stand._

_And her eyes almost bulged from her eyeballs when they landed on the stomach of her teacher._

_"Shina-sensei, I think you should go on a diet." She said the first thing that came into her mind._

_She heard a quiet snort coming from the stand and she recognized it as the Fourth Hokage. Out of habit she raised her hand to hide from the blow from the angry redhead, but it never came. _

_She blinked when the warm hands started to examine the bandages on her hands. _

_"I don't believe you still haven't learned how to bandage yourself, Natsu! I have shown it to you lots of times, 'ttebane!" Kushina stated and guided her inside the stand. _

_"Actually no, you didn't. You just sent us every time to hospital. Hi, Minato-sensei." The girl said, taking a place on the free seat. _

_"I did not, 'ttebane!" there was a moment of silence. "Ok, maybe I did." _

_"How was your training, Natsu-san?" Minato asked, turning to the girl. _

_"To the rest of my life I'm going to think that it was an attempt to kill me." She answered, giving her order to Ichiraku. _

_"It couldn't be that bad." He started, however the look on her bandages said him that he wrong. _

_When Kushina started unwrapping her bandages to fix them, Natsu looked considerably worried. _

_"Shina-sensei?" she asked and when the woman hummed in answer she continued. "Are you sure you won't kill me accidently with the bandages?" _

_The whack she received reminded her why she should keep her tongue at bay when near Kushina. Especially the pregnant one. _

She smiled to herself remembering some of the antics of the pregnant woman. Her smile slowly fated however when a wave of melancholy hit her. She missed them all, her sensei and Isamu.

"Nee-chan?" the worried voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked up on the small boy who had stopped his happy march and was now looking at her. "Why are you sad?"

Natsu looked into his worried eyes before smiling a little and ruffling his hair.

"'m fine, Naruto, just thinking about something." she answered and on a whim she grabbed the boy under his arms and lifted him, settling him on her hip. He was so small, maybe even too small for his age. She wasn't sure, she knew practically nothing about kids. "What would you say about getting some ramen before going to the orphanage to take you things?" she asked and almost went deaf because of the volume of the happiness emitting from Naruto.

* * *

There was a heavy silence in the Hokage's Office.

"Are you sure about it, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked, a doubt heard in his voice.

"I am not, however it is the only pan I could think of when I considered the future of Naruto." the older man answered. "I also want you to keep you eye on both of them."

"Is it a mission?"

"Yes."

With a nod, Kakashi was gone.


End file.
